History Behind the Scenes: Exploring Delaware's Libraries, Museums, and Historic Sites (HIST/MSST 385)
Three-credit course offered at the University of Delaware, summer, 2018.
On its surface, “History Behind the Scenes: Exploring Delaware’s Libraries, Museums, and Historic Sites” engages student interest with exciting, behind-the-scenes access to the area’s cultural heritage institutions. Yet the course was conceived primarily as a way to use inquiry-based learning to teach students the basics of examining primary sources and thinking critically about collective memory. Designed to attract enrollment from non-majors, the class explores issues in nonprofit administration, visits 10 libraries and museums, and completes an advocacy assignment in which students contact elected officials about the importance of heritage preservation to civic life. The course fulfills an undergraduate "Discovery Learning Experience" requirement at the University of Delaware.
Sample Course Materials:
Syllabus
Museum How-To's
Site Visit Evaluation Form
The Curator's Toolkit: Up Close and Personal with The Rosenbach's Collections
Offered as an eight-session, not-for-credit course at The Rosenbach during fall semester, 2021.
Do you love discovering fascinating stories from history? Have you ever wanted to get up close and personal with museum and library collection objects, including rare books, manuscripts, paintings, furniture, precious metals, and ceramics? If so, then this course is for you.
The Curator’s Toolkit will equip you with knowledge and skills for handling, studying, preserving, and learning from fine art, antiques, rare books, and manuscripts at The Rosenbach and beyond, and give you hands-on, behind-the-scenes access to world-renowned museum and library collections. You will even write an object label for a real Rosenbach museum exhibition. In this course, the historic Rosenbach house becomes your laboratory for the study and enjoyment of art, artifacts, and historic texts.
Sample course materials:
Syllabus
Artifact Lab - Crash Course in Artifact Study
Artifact Lab - Archives and Collective Memory
Artifact Lab - Prints and Paintings
Object Label Writing Assignment
Defining Key Terms: Rare Books, Archives, and Special Collections
